Fear of Nudity Counselling & Therapy

All phobias, regardless of what the feared object or circumstances are, produce feelings of Anxiety and Stress for the sufferer, and the Fear of Nudity is no different.

Whilst the feared object or situation may seem, to other people, to be ‘ridiculous’ or ‘silly’, the person who suffers from Gymnophobia knows only too well that the Anxiety that they experience is real enough.

We completely understand this here at TranceForm Psychology and will treat you and your Fear of Nudity seriously and with ‘unconditional positive regard’.

It has long been understood within the world of psychology that our minds are more than capable of producing a real biological reaction to any given situation and so as long as the Gymnophobia sufferer “believes” that the object or situation they fear represents a real danger to them, then they will experience real fear with all of the associated symptoms.

This ‘reaction’ itself is not ‘faulty’ – the problem isn’t the Anxiety that is experienced, but the ‘idea’ or ‘thoughts’ that go into creating this reaction!

The greater majority of people who suffer with the Fear of Nudity readily accept that their fear is “irrational” but continue to experience it regardless of this knowledge. It is important to understand, therefore, that despite the severity and strength of the negative emotional experience that the Fear of Nudity might produce inside you, that it is 100% created by your thinking and not by the external object or environment itself. This idea is known as ‘constructionism’ and is particularly well understood.

Fear of Nudity Symptoms

The symptoms of the Fear of Nudity are very similar to other specific phobias and will often include:

Panic attacks

Inability to Relax

Problems Concentrating

Being quick tempered

Feelings of dizziness

Prickly sensations

Palpitations

Aches & Pains

Fatigue

Dry and Sticky mouth

Sweating Excessively

Breathlessness

Migraines and Headaches

Gymnophobia Symptoms are generally automatic and uncontrollable and can seem to take over a person’s thoughts which frequently leads to extreme measures being taken to avoid the feared object or situation, what are known as “Safety” or “Avoidance” behaviours.

Unfortunately, for the sufferer, these safety behaviours have a paradoxical effect and actually reinforce the Fear of Nudity rather than solve it!

Your Fear of Nudity may be the result of negative experiences that can be either directly or indirectly linked to the object or situational fear.

Over time, these symptoms can become “normalised” and “accepted” as limiting beliefs in that person’s life – “you have learnt to live with it.”

In just as many cases, Gymnophobia may have become worse over time as more and more sophisticated avoidance behaviours and routines are developed.

The good news is that the vast majority of people who suffer with a Fear of Nudity will find that a course of Psychological Therapy will help enormously by helping to change the fundamental thinking contributing to the problem in the first place!

Fear of Nudity Treatment

TranceForm Psychology is able to offer a range of different psychological treatments for your Fear of Nudity including both ‘cognitive’ (thinking) based talking therapies as well as therapies based on ’emotional’ content such as EMDR & Analytical Therapy.

If your Fear of Nudity has become very ‘pervasive’ then we might suggest a psycho-dynamic approach to therapy where an emphasis is placed on the ‘relationship’ between the therapist and client as the fundamental ‘vehicle’ for change.

Cognitive Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and the Changing Limiting Beliefs (CLB) Programme tend to regard the symptoms of Gymnophobia as being due to ‘unhelpful thinking styles‘ or patterns of thinking that directly ‘create’ the ‘feelings’ of anxiety and stress when encountering the phobic object or situation. These types of therapy are often referred to as ‘incremental’ therapies and tend to focus on building a set of ‘coping skills’ and mechanisms that are very much focused on the ‘present day’ experience rather than any ‘past traumas’.

This relationship between thinking (cognition) and feelings (behaviour) is the central pillar of these types of therapy and is supported by a substantial body of scientific evidence.

Psycho-Dynamic Therapies such as Psychoanalysis take a different approach to the the incremental therapies as they consider that events and social influences experienced in the earlier formative lives of the person can cause, or at least “pre-dispose”, a person to ‘process events’ in a specific way in later life.

The aim of psychodynamic therapy is to help a person to explore, develop personal insight and resolve these causative issues following the doctrine of “cause and effect”.

Therapies

TranceForm offer a wide range of therapy modalities to help you solve your issues.

Click on the images below to find out more.

Thrive Programme

CBT

BWRT

EMDR

Psychoanalysis

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